This article is written in American English, which has its own spelling conventions (center, color, defense, realize, traveled) and some terms may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Data center article. This is not a forum for general discussion of the subject of the article.

Add new text under old text. New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help. Start a new topic Assume good faith Be polite and avoid personal attacks Be welcoming to newcomers Seek dispute resolution if needed Article policies Neutral point of view No original research Verifiability

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Archives: 1Auto-archiving period: 3 months

This  level-5 vital article is rated C-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. It is of interest to multiple WikiProjects.

Technology This article is within the scope of WikiProject Technology, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of technology on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.TechnologyWikipedia:WikiProject TechnologyTemplate:WikiProject TechnologyTechnology Computing Top‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Computing, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of computers, computing, and information technology on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.ComputingWikipedia:WikiProject ComputingTemplate:WikiProject ComputingComputing Top This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale. This article is supported by Computer hardware task force (assessed as Top-importance). Electronics This article is part of WikiProject Electronics, an attempt to provide a standard approach to writing articles about electronics on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can choose to edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks. Leave messages at the project talk pageElectronicsWikipedia:WikiProject ElectronicsTemplate:WikiProject Electronicselectronic ??? This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale. Internet This article is within the scope of WikiProject Internet, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of the Internet on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.InternetWikipedia:WikiProject InternetTemplate:WikiProject InternetInternet ??? This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale. Telecommunications This article is within the scope of WikiProject Telecommunications, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Telecommunications on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.TelecommunicationsWikipedia:WikiProject TelecommunicationsTemplate:WikiProject TelecommunicationsTelecommunications ??? This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale. Artificial Intelligence This article is within the scope of WikiProject Artificial Intelligence, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Artificial intelligence on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Artificial IntelligenceWikipedia:WikiProject Artificial IntelligenceTemplate:WikiProject Artificial IntelligenceArtificial Intelligence ??? This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.

Individuals with a conflict of interest, particularly those representing the subject of the article, are strongly advised not to directly edit the article. See Wikipedia:Conflict of interest. You may request corrections or suggest content here on the Talk page for independent editors to review, or contact us if the issue is urgent.

The following Wikipedia contributor may be personally or professionally connected to the subject of this article. Relevant policies and guidelines may include conflict of interest, autobiography, and neutral point of view. Markharris2000 (talk · contribs) This user has contributed to the article.

Archives

Archive 1

This page has archives. Topics inactive for 90 days are automatically archived 1 or more at a time by Lowercase sigmabot III if there are more than 4.

Hello, I am a student editor and I am currently working on expanding this Wiki article as part of project for a university course. I have added two sections to the article and changed the lead section according to the sections added over the past couple of days.

First, I added the Classification and Types section before the history section for general knowledge. Within the new section, I provided sourced definitions and quantitative data for each of the four main type of data center. Some important sources include the 2024 United States Data Center Energy Usage Report (LBNL-2001637), IEA's 2025 "Energy and AI" report, and market share data from Synergy Research Group. I also added a summary table comparing the four types of data centers by scale, purpose, and key features.

Secondly, I added a section on Regulation and Policy Responses. Within that section, I added four subsections each covering one aspect of some current policy debates when it comes to the topic of data centers. This includes tax incentives, electricity and grid policy, water usage, and climate policy alignment. For this new content, some important sources are the 2024 JLARC Virginia legislative audit, a 2025 Congressional Research Service report (R48646), University of Michigan's policy report by Nguyen and Green published in 2025, a 2025 study in Nature Sustainability by Xiao, and a report from Inside Climate News and the Environmental. Within the new text added, I aimed to maintain a neutral point of view, as I framed all content as ongoing debates, only listing facts instead of taking a position on the topics. I welcome any feedback on source citations, tone, placement, or article structure from experienced editors. Thank you. ~~~~ Andywu1115 (talk) 08:22, 1 March 2026 (UTC)[reply]

I reverted your second chunk of additions; several of the sources are advocacy sources; the Nguyen source doesn't appear to be peer-reviewed, just some random publication; also mixing in data with the advocacy statements becomes WP:SYNTH. The CRS report is probably the best source of the ones you used. IEA is also a good neutral source. ---Avatar317^(talk) 05:48, 3 March 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the feedback you gave! I rewrote the section using more government-recorded sources and peer-reviewed sources. Hope it's better this time. Andywu1115 (talk) 14:09, 28 April 2026 (UTC)[reply]

In the "Hyperscale" section, there is a "^{[failed verification]}" tag after a line about how AI data centers consume more electricity than conventional data centers. I tried checking the source I believe the tag is referencing, and there are some charts that seem to show AI data centers using more energy than conventional data centers, specifically the "Total data center electricity consumption" chart on page 53 and the "Server % Time Operational" chart on page 27. Is this enough to remove the tag, or (because the info is visual and not written out) should this sentenced be cut or edited? (I've already trimmed "significantly" from "more than conventional..." since it is a bit difficult to quantify.) ItGetsWorseB4ItGetsWorse (talk) 22:50, 11 May 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Hi -- I have flagged this as likely containing AI-generated text (which violates our guidelines). This comes from multiple edits, and honestly some of the older edits are suspect, but I'll just mention the ones I am more sure about:

• The edits by Andywu1115, such as these and these, may be AI-rewritten (I don't think they are AI-generated); at the very least, their talk page comments and edit summaries very much seem AI-generated in full (see WP:AISIGNS for indicators of that).
• The article rewrites by Paigebypaige here seem to be AI: more AI edit summaries (and specifically, their 2025 summaries read like 2025 AI summaries and their 2026 summaries read the 2026 ones, which is consistent with LLM model release breakpoints and the data we have on AI edit summaries on Wikipedia), and turning things into AI puffery like Data centers are the foundation of the digital infrastructure that powers the modern economy. They also introduce changes of meaning that may not be verified in the sources anymore. Their posts such as this are also AI.
• The edits by Saurav.eu here. These are the most obvious AI output: superficial analyses (highlights power imbalances in resource management, highlight how corporate sustainability pledges, such as carbon neutrality targets by companies like Microsoft and Google, often rely on offsets and renewable subsidies, These conflicts underscore calls for equitable governance), overgeneralization (Scholars argue that these facilities reshape urban and rural landscapes), etc.

Also, the edit history seems to indicate that several issues have already been found with this stuff, though the (likely) root cause does not seem to have been identified. Gnomingstuff (talk) 18:42, 21 May 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Hello! I've come across a new source that I believe provides relevant information to the topic, but I'm unsure where the best place to include it is. A surge in Nevada data center construction threatens the electricity supply for 49,000 Californians Topics in the article include:

• The rising number of data centers in Nevada
• Nevada's undeveloped acreage
• Impacts on California/Lake Tahoe residents
• Rising utility costs
• Percentage of energy used + future projections.

I realize that the information can be added in more than one location, just looking for a second opinion.

Thanks! TXstockman5 (talk) 19:47, 22 May 2026 (UTC)[reply]

"Impact on electricity prices" section? Naturedata (talk) 07:59, 23 May 2026 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know if that is the ideal location just because it doesn't give specific examples, only vague assumptions that the prices will go up as a result of the power company discontinuing service. Good thought though. I'm leaning in the direction of multiple uses based on relevance. TXstockman5 (talk) 20:14, 25 May 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe somewhere in the main "Energy Use" section. I re-read the article more thoroughly and the crux seems to be a NV power supplier is cutting off residential supply to meet increased data center demand. Naturedata (talk) 07:04, 27 May 2026 (UTC)[reply]